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anomnomnomymous writes "Since their release in 1978, hit albums like Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Billy Joel’s “52nd Street,” the Doobie Brothers’ “Minute by Minute,” Kenny Rogers’s “Gambler” and Funkadelic’s “One Nation Under a Groove” have generated tens of millions of dollars for record companies. But thanks to a little-noted provision in United States copyright law, those artists — and thousands more — now have the right to reclaim ownership of their recordings, potentially leaving the labels out in the cold."Link to Original Source

anomnomnomymous writes "One user claims that an unknown thief has stolen his virtual wallet with Bitcoins, worth the equivalent of half a million dollars. In a posting on the Bitcoin forum, a user with the nickname Allinvain claims 25,000 Bitcoins have been captured; An amount with a rough value of 467.500 dollar.
So are we going to see more of these robberies in the future? This clearly shows one of the downsides of the semi-anonymous currency, as a recourse or refund (or legal protection) is nearly absent."Link to Original Source

I played the demo the other day, and if people buy this and then complaint it's their own mistake. The demo already clearly showed in which areas it was lacking (bad animations, bad scripting,really lame humor/voice acting). Even though I've been a big fan of Duke3D, I just couldn't see this being worth my money. But all props to them that they actually released a demo; Most of the times the crappy games won't have a demo, because of aforementioned reasons.

I don't think this algoritm would give a good insight in how I use email myself.
I subscribe to quite a few newsletters, and as such, my email inbox is almost always filled. Most of them I directly archive (they get auto-tagged when appearing in my inbox; so they're easier to file), and some I leave in my inbox for later browsing/reference. Also other important emails I leave in my inbox (yes, I should be filing those too) when I read them, and mark them unread so I know I still have to do something with it.

This behaviour would lead the sender to believe I'm always swamped.

And to be honest: I think this is a solution trying to be found for a problem that doesn't really exist.
If you want someone to read your email, make sure to have a proper subject-title, or use the in-office urgency-tags.

Wow, I'm really liking this move, and I think it makes sense. Still, quite admirable that they don't leave the DRM on there for longer.
The first few weeks is when a game is most at risk of being pirated. Nonetheless, this game is already on several torrent sites, so it's not as if the DRM worked in the first place.

I'm a very wary computer user, with decent security (firewall with a whitelist, and behind a router).
I've had two times in the last half a year that this one crept up; The last one only a few days ago.
The first time it took me a few hours to get properly rid of it, but a few days ago I immedeately recognised the 'fake scan' window, and as a quick resort, resetted my computer.
I started up in safe mode, and used MalwareByte's AntiMalwareto get rid of it (one of the few antispy that actually removes this one correctly; very much recommended once you get infected).

But to stress: There's NO user interaction necessary for this one to work and install itself. I'm up to date on everything (Windows, firewall, anti-virus, browser, java), and this one still slipped through.

My only resort was to have a rough look through the last 10 sites I've visited, and whereas I haven't noticed anything dodgy in particular, I'll refrain from using these sites for some time.

I've seen this described as Crytek taking on the likes of the UT3-engine, though I find there's one very important difference:
The UT3 engine can currently also be used to sell commercial games: Up to the first 50k of sales, it's completely free for developers. After that, Epic will take 25% of the earnings.
The cool things is that this 50k only works for the share that people get -after- the app stores get their cut. Have a look at their site to see their licensing agreement.

Not related to Epic in any way; Just a happy 'customer', and hopefully a published indie developer in the near future.

Way to show you just don't care.. "hey, fill out this survey so a computer can determine how to rate your game. No, we aren't going to play it."

Erm, they already don't play the games. Instead, they have the same list of questions that have to be filled in by the developers, on which they base their judgement. Developers also supply videos of gameplay, to clarify some of the answers/explanations.

I really don't see too much wrong with this: I think it makes it much clearer for developers how to target the rating they have in mind: If, for instance, they try to shoot for a PG13, they can fill in the survey/test beforehand, and clearly see if it's on the mark.

Overall, I think it's good for them to have a clear rating system, to remove any of the bias that some of the reviewers might have.

This makes sense: All the leveldesigners, modelers, texture- and concept artists; They all work on Steam...

I assume that the sarcasm is noticed.

There's no need for Valve to work on Episode 3 in a hurry; Whenever it will be released, it will be sold by the millions.
And to be honest; I rather wait some more (actually, I'm not missing it), and get yet another awesome game, whereas I don't get the feeling that something is incomplete because of rushing it out for a certain date.

Other than that, I also have a theory in which I think that right now, they might be working on HL3, and just skip the whole Episode 3.
Then again, pure speculation of course.

I'm not too sure if I condone this behaviour, nor do I think this is a 'fun' way to catch pirates: A fun way was how the Nintendo DS version of Michael Jackson: The Experience made copied versions of the game unplayable and taunts gamers with the blaring sound of vuvuzelas: See here

The problem I have with these kinds of protections is that they also might affect paid customers; Same as with strict DRM.

I already bought Garry's Mod after having played it for free (as the HL2 mod).
It was less than 10 dollars, so a real bargain. But I would have reconsidered it if I heard of this beforehand.
Nonetheless, all power to the developer to protect their property.

I can sort of understand why he settled: Hell, I'd settle if I realised it would likely take years of my life, if not thousands of dollars to fight.
But still, the rant, as seen on Geohot's site, still gives me a bit of a feeling of dealing with a hypocrite.

Then again, I'm a big hypocrite for wanting someone else to pursue something, which I would probably also settle as soon as possible.